Using Sequential Mixed Social Science Methods to Define and Measure Heritage Conservation Performance

There is no agreed-upon definition for heritage conservation performance, but it is possible to borrow ideas from the natural resource conservation field to inform this concept. Dimensions of performance can include economic, technical, and sociocultural and experiential indices. Because heritage conservation ostensibly benefits people as its primary goal, however, the values of most stakeholders ought to play a role in defining performance. Most of these values are subjective and represent sociocultural and personal meanings and tend to differ dramatically from the positivistic, fabric-centered value system of conservation experts. Measurement implies quantification, yet many sociocultural values are based on qualitative meanings that defy direct attempts at quantification. One solution for this predicament is to employ a sequential mixed-method approach where qualitative meanings are gathered from stakeholders and then these meanings are used to inform the development of a quantitative method, such as a survey instrument. In this way, while the qualitative meanings are not being directly “measured” as such, aspects of the phenomenon behind these meanings can be measured, quantified, and subjected to statistical techniques. A brief representative case study is presented as an example of how social science methodologies can help define and measure performance

Valuing Historic Places: Traditional and Contemporary Approaches

Decisions about which older buildings, structures, and places should be conserved are fundamental to the practice of architectural conservation. Conservation professionals use the interrelated concepts of integrity, authenticity, and historical value to determine which historic places are worthy of importance. Traditionally, these concepts are predicated on preserving the object rather than conserving the meaning and values associated with the object. In other works, the goal is to benefit the object and not the people who value the object. This method, which has roots in antiquated nineteenth-century Western scientific traditions, deprecates the importance of people, processes, and meanings in how places are valued and conserved. Thus, conservation professionals produce “objective” meanings for other conservators, but not for everyday people. The net result is a failure to understand how local populations actually value their historic places. A recent movement in architectural conservation is to emphasize the role of contemporary social, cultural, and personal meanings in valuing historic places and the processes in which places develop these values overtime. This pluralistic perspective recognizes that different populations and cultures will have diverse ways of valuing historic places. Ultimately, for places such as Iraq, we have very little, if any, data to support conservation decisions that understand and respect local cultures and tradition. The danger is in applying traditional, Western, concepts that still dominate the conservation profession to non-Western contexts. There is a tremendous learning opportunity to engage in the cross-pollination of ideas from the perspectives of the Western and Eastern traditions and to learn how the citizens of Iraq value their cultural heritage. This information, once gathered, can then inform how to best approach the conservation of Iraqi urban centers

Between-word junctures in early multi-word speech

Most children aged 1;6 to 2;0 begin to use utterances of two words or more. It is therefore important for child phonologists to consider the development of phonetic and phonological phenomena that characterize connected speech. The longitudinal case study reported here investigated three juncture types – assimilation, elision and liaison – in the speech of a typically-developing child between the ages of 2;4 and 3;4. Attempts at production of these adult juncture types occurred from the onset of two-word utterances. However, for some juncture types, the child still had to perfect the intergestural relationships and gestural articulations that the adult between-word junctures demand. This process of phonetic development was largely accomplished by the age of 3;4. With one exception, between-word junctures appear not to be the result of learned phonological rules or processes. The exception is liaison involving /r/, which did not occur until the child was three years old

Apparatus for ejection of an instrument cover

Apparatus for ejecting covers of instrument packages using differential pressure principl

Beyond Being Handed The Ipad: An Interpretive Phenomenological Study Of Lecturers’ Lived Experiences Of Ipad Adoption

Lecturers’ lived experiences regarding iPad adoption have received minimal research attention. This interpretive phenomenological study aims to give voice to the iPad adoption experiences of twelve health and social care lecturers from a post 1992 university. T he lecturers were deployed iPads in December 2013 in readiness for supporting their university’s mobile teaching and learning strategy. The study explores the phenomenological question: What is the lecturer’s lived experience of iPad adoption? The majority of current iPad research is technocentric in its orientation and focuses on iPad adoption from an ontic rather than an ontological perspective. The purpose of this study is to inquire into the phenomenon of lecturers’ iPad adoption, and the ontological and existential meanings derived from the lecturers’ everyday usage of the tool. The methodology is Heidegger’s interpretive ontological phenomenology. Heidegger’s philosophy places significant emphasis on ontological and existential issues as revealed by our practical and everyday usage of equipment. His philosophy also has an educational bearing, in the sense that our ‘being-in-the-world’ is to pursue ongoing transformation of the self. The research methods are drawn from the tenets of Heideggerian philosophy. Two separate conversational interviews, the first phenomenological and the second hermeneutic were undertaken with the participants. The interpretive lenses of Greek mythology and legend, Heidegger’s care structure of Dasein and temporality, along with Ihde’s contemporary technoscience and van Manen’s lifeworld existentials support the analysis and filter the interpretations. The findings reveal that the iPad was used, unused, disused, misused and overused in the lecturers’ everyday practice. The phenomenon of iPad adoption revealed the following existential issues: a proneness to over -conscientious caring and intensive labour (Sisyphean toil); dismay as support was held tantalisingly out of reach (Tantalian torture); tension between authentic and inauthentic teaching selves (Diogenes’s painted and real figs); the hiding of ambivalence (Penelopeian pretence); embarking on a challenging and individual learning quest (Promethean endeavour); and experiencing an end to ‘being’ carefree (Pandora’s box). Lecturers found the iPad to be in ‘readiness-to-hand’ as an administrative and communication tool and a useful learning tool for their own self-development and self-healing. Most were ‘not-at-home’ with the iPad as a teaching device. In authentic self-being, teaching as a ‘flesh and blood’ practice, remained the pedagogical preference for most of the participants. During their individual quests towards iPad adoption, the participants endured varying degrees of existential ‘homelessness’, ‘homesickness’ and ‘homecoming’. It is hoped this study will raise awareness of the ontological and existential issues associated with lecturers’ iPad adoption. Also, to encourage lecturers to consider their existence and transforming practice as pedagogues in a digitalised HE. An important revelation of this study is that iPadagogy is something of a ‘knowledge oligopoly’. If educational technology and peer support are held tantalisingly out of reach, if the well-travelled and the untravelled iPad users fail to meet, then some lecturers may be inclined to postpone or never intend any future pedagogical application with the device. The truth (Altheia) of iPadagogy is, ‘there is no sweet smooth journey home ’ for the lecturer

Detailed Skylab ECS consumables analysis for the interim revision flight plan (November, 1972, SL-1 launch)

The consumables analysis was performed for the Skylab 2, 3, and 4 Preliminary Reference Interim Revision Flight Plan. The analysis and the results are based on the mission requirements as specified in the flight plan and on other available data. The results indicate that the consumables requirements for the Skylab missions allow for remaining margins (percent) of oxygen, nitrogen, and water nominal as follows: 83.5, 90.8, and 88.7 for mission SL-2; 57.1, 64.1, and 67.3 for SL-3; and 30.8, 44.3, and 46.5 for SL-4. Performance of experiment M509 as scheduled in the flight plan results in venting overboard the cluster atmosphere. This is due to the addition of nitrogen for propulsion and to the additional oxygen introduced into the cabin when the experiment is performed with the crewman suited

Three small transiting planets around the M dwarf host star LP 358-499

We report on the detection of three transiting small planets around the low-mass star LP 358-499 (K2-133), using photometric data from the Kepler-K2 mission. Using multiband photometry, we determine the host star to be an early M dwarf with an age likely older than a Gigayear. The three detected planets K2-133 b, c, and d have orbital periods of ca. 3, 4.9 and 11 days and transit depths of ca. 700, 1000 and 2000 ppm, respectively. We also report a planetary candidate in the system (EPIC 247887989.01) with a period of 26.6 days and a depth of ca. 1000 ppm, which may be at the inner edge of the stellar habitable zone, depending on the specific host star properties. Using the transit parameters and the stellar properties, we estimate that the innermost planet may be rocky. The system is suited for follow-up observations to measure planetary masses and JWST transmission spectra of planetary atmospheres.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters. Replaced previous arXiv version with final submitted versio

Validation of a Temperate Fourth Planet in the K2-133 Multi-planet System

We present follow-up observations of the K2-133 multi-planet system. Previously, we announced that K2-133 contained three super-Earths orbiting an M1.5V host star - with tentative evidence of a fourth outer-planet orbiting at the edge of the temperate zone. Here we report on the validation of the presence of the fourth planet, determining a radius of $1.73_{-0.13}^{+0.14}$ R$_{\oplus}$. The four planets span the radius gap of the exoplanet population, meaning further follow-up would be worthwhile to obtain masses and test theories of the origin of the gap. In particular, the trend of increasing planetary radius with decreasing incident flux in the K2-133 system supports the claim that the gap is caused by photo-evaporation of exoplanet atmospheres. Finally, we note that K2-133 e orbits on the edge of the stars temperate zone, and that our radius measurement allows for the possibility that this is a rocky world. Additional mass measurements are required to confirm or refute this scenario.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA